Electronic mixer

A simple three-channel passive additive mixer. More channels can be added by simply adding more input jacks and mix resistors.

A "virtual ground" active additive mixer. The buffer amplifiers serve to reduce crosstalk and distortion.

An electronic mixer is a device that combines two or more electrical or electronic signals into one or two composite output signals. There are two basic circuits that both use the term mixer, but they are very different types of circuits: additive mixers and multiplicative mixers.

Simple additive mixers use Kirchhoff's circuit laws to add the currents of two or more signals together, and this terminology ("mixer") is only used in the realm of audio electronics where audio mixers are used to add together audio signals such as voice signals, music signals, and sound effects.

Multiplicative mixers multiply together two time-varying input signals instantaneously (instant-by-instant). If the two input signals are both sinusoids of specified frequencies f₁ and f₂, then the output of the mixer will contain two new sinsoids that have the sum f₁ + f₂ frequency and the difference frequency absolute value |f₁ - f₂|.

Note: Any nonlinear electronic block driven by two signals with frequencies f₁ and f₂ would generate intermodulation (mixing) products. A multiplier (which is a nonlinear device) will generate ideally only the sum and difference frequencies, whereas an arbitrary nonlinear block would generate also signals at e.g. 2·f₁-3·f₂, etc. Therefore, normal nonlinear amplifiers or just single diodes have been used as mixers, instead of a more complex multiplier. A multiplier has usually the advantage of rejecting - at least partly - undesired higher-order intermodulations and larger conversion gain.

Additive mixers

Additive mixers add two or more signals, giving out a composite signal that contains the frequency components of each of the source signals. The simplest additive mixers are simple resistor networks, and thus purely passive, while more complex matrix mixers employ active components such as buffer amplifiers for impedance matching and better isolation.

Multiplicative mixers

Ideal multiplicative mixers produce an output signal equal to the product of the two input signals. Multiplicative mixers are often used in conjunction with an oscillator in the communications field to modulate signal frequencies. Multiplicative mixers can be coupled with a filter to either up-convert or down-convert an input signal frequency, but they are more commonly used to down-convert to a lower frequency to allow for simpler filter designs, as done in superheterodyne receivers. In many typical circuits, the single output signal actually contains multiple waveforms, namely those at the sum and difference of the two input frequencies and harmonic waveforms. The output signal may be obtained by removing the other signal components with a filter. (see intermediate frequency)

Multiplicative mixers have been implemented in a wide variety of ways. The most popular are Gilbert cell mixers, diode mixers, diode ring mixers (ring modulation) and switching mixers. Diode mixers take advantage of the non-linearity of diode devices to produce the desired multiplication in the squared term. It is a very inefficient method as most of the power output is in other unwanted terms which need filtering out. Inexpensive AM radios still use diode mixers.

Electronic mixers are usually made with transistors and/or diodes arranged in a balanced circuit or even a double-balanced circuit. These are readily manufactured by using the technology of either monolithic integrated circuits or hybrid integrated circuits. These are designed for a wide variety of frequency ranges, and they are mass produced to tight tolerances by the hundreds of thousands, making them relatively cheap components.

These double-balanced mixers are very widely used in microwave communication systems, satellite communication systems, and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) communications transmitters and receivers, and in radar systems transmitters and receivers.

Gilbert cell mixers are just an arrangement of transistors that multiplies the two signals. The switching mixers (below) pass more power and usually insert less distortion.

switching mixers use arrays of field effect transistors or (in older days) vacuum tubes. These are used as electronic switches, to permit the signal to go one direction, then the other. They are controlled by the signal being mixed. They are especially popular with digitally controlled radios.